Old habits die hard.

Though preseason practices focused heavily on involving post players in the offense , the Penn State women's basketball team relied on its customary strong guard play to defeat Syracuse 71-46 yesterday at the Bryce Jordan Center in its home opener.

A tenacious 2-3 zone from the Orange frustrated senior forward Amanda Brown in the post, holding her to just 11 points, so outside shooting was imperative to the Lady Lions' success. Three guards ended the contest in double figures, led by freshman Tyra Grant's 14. Though close for the first 20 minutes, the Lady Lions broke the game wide open in the second half when they began to solve the zone.

"In the beginning, we were trying to force things, and we weren't running our offenses through," sophomore point guard Brianne O'Rourke said. "We were kinda flustered at first."

O'Rourke made two of the team's nine 3-pointers; shots that were essential to getting Brown opportunities in the late stages of the game.

"To open the inside, it's real important that we hit some shots from the outside," Penn State coach Rene Portland said. "We just had to keep going after what we do."

Grant's energy cleaned up the mess of an ugly start, as she tallied eight straight Lady Lion points and collected a steal during a one-minute stretch midway through the first half.

"I try to do the little things at first, get myself into the game first before I actually start doing everything else," Grant said. "I just look to be that spark and try to turn everything around. That's my main focus."

She aided in the breakdown of the Orange zone, which was focused on keeping Brown in check.

"[Brown] was 4-13 [from the field]. I can't ask [the defense] to do much more than that," Syracuse first-year coach Quentin Hillsman said. "When she would run the baseline, or she would go for short corner or to the wing, we didn't go out with her. I was more concerned about her diving back to the block on us."

Nursing a seven-point lead at halftime, the Lady Lions concentrated their efforts on quickness and spreading the floor in the second half. Penn State's speed and depth wore down the short-handed Orange, who were missing five players with injuries.

"Running was a big part of breaking down that zone in the second half," Portland said. "We didn't even give them an opportunity to set it up."

Brown, who treated her hometown crowd to a stellar double-double -- 18 points, 17 rebounds -- in Friday's season opener victory at Drexel, admitted she was frustrated early on

but the outside shooters unwrapped chances for her later.

"I couldn't really get my normal shots down low," Brown said. "A lot of people would collapse whenever we did get the ball down low. We spread the court in man offenses and that helped get things open."

Regardless of mistakes, the Lady Lions are happy to be building off of two victories heading into a tough stretch against South Carolina and Notre Dame this week, a contrast from last season's shaky 0-2 start.

"It's just so nice to be 2-0," Brown said.

Notes: The Lady Lions spoiled the first career game for Syracuse coach Quentin Hillsman, who took over the job after Keith Cieplicki resigned in June... Freshman sharpshooter Meggan Quinn scored her first career points with a garbage-time lay-up... Guards Kam Gissendanner (13 points) and Adrienne Squire (11) joined Brown and Grant in double figures... O'Rourke had a quietly solid game, tallying nine rebounds and seven assists while only turning the ball over once.